Sep 10, 2010

Nice & Sunny

Oh yeah, it's Friday. It's a freaking sunny day - too sunny for my vampiric eyes - and the weather looks fine, and Dad flipped on me regarding the morning ride to the office and the after work car shopping. Yes, I still have no car. Allegedly we'll go see the cars tomorrow, all of them Hyundai Accents, one of the most carjacked cars in this side of the Mississipi. Well, that I want to see. When I commented my good friend Carrie about the new car-of-choice, she wasn't impressed at all, but rather threw me one of those dismissing glances that say "so you are going to get one of those no-personality cars". Yep, I'm gonna get a no personality car, but then again, after the ordeal with the Monza, I rather have a no personality car, cheap to maintain (long live low maintenance!), than a pretty ride, Chevrolet to it (like Dean's Impala), but with a whiny EMO personality. I certainly don't want a car I'll end up calling "Fucking Edward Culled Drop Dead at Once". You know what I mean, the always problematic ride you enjoy tormenting, telling it how you gonna get it gutted, leave it in the slums to be dismembered and collect the insurance.

However let's stay focused, and focus now means that it is a sunny day. For how long I have no idea, but so far it's sunny. Just to make sure, I took pictures. Unlike my friend Dragonfly, I'm not really into the sky, but working at the 15th floor with a lot of glare from the windows, and unintended reflections of oneself and the surroundings, the sky is pretty much all you can picture. Pictures were taken at 7:30 am, and they weren't originally intended for this post - this post wasn't even in my mind then - but for my other great friend, Sartassa. She dropped me a mail wishing me a nice and sunny day. Well, it was sunny. It was so freaking sunny the sun was burning my eyes, shining right into them. Should have pulled a CSI Miami.

From that earlier picture you can guess there's a tennis club right next to us. Yeah, it's kinda mean to have people playing tennis, or swimming in the pool while we are here, in this awkward tower locked in working. At that time it looks so refreshing, you wish you could dive right into it.

Things in here haven't really improved, though with the new schedules it's much easier to get to the cubicle at starting time, or leave it. Well, for those of us who enter before 7 am. The 6 am shift (mine) is a true blessing: free and swift elevators, no crowds, easy, peaceful start, giving you plenty of time to prepare for meetings, or answer e-mails from the day before and have the project well advanced for when the boss comes in asking for it. And then, you leave at 3:36 pm, to everybody's bitter envy. I'm happy with the "flexible workschedules", but still that hasn't fixed the loooooong lines at the elevator at 7 am, from noon to 2 pm, or later on at 4:30 pm and all the way up to 5:30 pm, not to mention, the shaky elevators that crack worse than an old man's knees, which broke on regular basis, giving unsuspecting passangers a sudden "trip of death".

Once a coworkers was joking about them, saying that it was exactly like at the amusement park: you make a 45 minute line for a 5 minute that might end up with a shrieking surprise.

But this is a sunny day, so - again - let's try to keep focused. Sunny and nice, as even if I brought delicious Lebanese food, I'll go out with my coworkers to pig on Doc Brown's, a "gourmet" hamburger diner, which is really not so much gourmet as a Costa Rican version of what you see in Triple-D(Diners, Drive-ins and Dives), where you can build, and I do mean BUILD your own hamburger. You may want to stay clear from that option if you have no self control, or you'll end up with a HUGE hamburger that will finish you, chew you, eat you and spit you. These monsters can fill any stomach. Work is also nice and relaxed. Ain't low, but it's under control.

Got a call early morning from an area that wasn't willing to cooperate with us before on a project we had to evaluate. It was interesting because the job wasn't clean cut and had a lot of flaws that mostly come out from lack of checking - or beta-reading as fanfickers say - mistakes some fresh eyes on the document would have detected and corrected in a flash, and then some others that revealed lack of information among the parties and also unwillingness to walk the extra mile. When the document was sent to us for check up, well, I was fresh eyes and saw the mess, so I asked them for the extra bits and pieces, as well as a thorough explanation so I could see where are they coming from. I received ATTITUDE. Really. Comments in my face about how I evidently can't read (!), and no, I won't get the information they ask me, and I can't possibly expect such a thorough work, that I must stop putting up obstacles, should be ashamed of myself, and that my job is not to question their work (!), but simply approve it (!!). Oh, and since we are on the matter, who died and made my area the boss? (uhhh, the fact that we work directly with the CEO and we are "the last frontier" anyone wishing to pass a project to him shall pass?) This all without me ever telling them I think they are full of it, and I believe that not only their figures are bogus, but that their ideas for this project are a bucked of it.

So I did my job. I prepared the evaluation with what I had and included an extensive list of every single mistake I've found. My bosses liked my report, and sent it forward, not changing a comma. The report arrived to the CEO the 7th. The 8th they were "calling me", though I received no calls and my phone lets me know . The 9th I received a letter from the head of the given area, though the letter had to be returned because it didn't had the attachment, and it took them three hours to get it to me - which is when I received the letter, which in my opinion was predated.

Today - nice and sunny day - I received a call from the Matron herself demanding me what was the status on the report. I tried to dodge her, but she insisted. Should have told her that I wasn't authorized to give her that information, that she should ask my boss, but instead, pressed and looking to "not spoil her the fun", I've told her only what she already knew.

"It says we didn't have the information we required to do a proper evaluation of it."

Oh, I could tell she was pissed off. Probably she plans to use the received memo to prove they did send me the information, only that's received two days after the finished report was sent to the CEO, and even if predated, I was mean enough to write on it the date AND the time, so no doubts would rise on that matter. It upset me how she evidently tried, to the last moment to undermine us instead of seeing in our intervention a chance to improve. Their defensiveness, their blunt attacking instead of working together, her prepotent declaring that she would back up the work of her people - only to change such a decided affirmation on the minute for "trust their work" - and evidently seeking to take us off the game. Well, we ain't going anywhere, particularly not now, when their strategies failed and we are here to stay. Oh yeah, and unlike they wanted it, us taking their methodology to work, it will be them taking ours.

When I told my boss their schemes, he simply smiled amused and said that our reply was sent, it was done and they should have thought better before they brought their attitude problems to the table. He's right. So much could have been achieved with just a little of cooperation from their side. Hell, I was willing to do their job for them! Oh well, that's the power of pride used wrongfully.

This week, also I was informed officially that I was going to be promoted, and I received my paycheck notice - due for next week - with a nice sum. ^_^ First I wasn't convinced, because the number seemed familiar, so I checked the last notice and the amount was hardly higher! I felt ripped off! But after investigating a bit, I realized that the last paycheck had the "retroactive" of the last general raise, so... ^_^ My new wage is somewhat higher, so with my first promotion in 7 years, thanks to my Ultimate Favorite Boss, who is, BTW, the ABSOLUTE BEST BOSS(okay, maybe only second to the Non-Plus-Ultra RBF, who is the Saint Patron of Best Bosses).

Today, on this nice and sunny day I heard about this huge machinery moving its bowels again, and so we will be moved again, though mainly placed a scale higher - no mass promotions - and add to it, I won't lose my Super Awesome Boss.

I've got two ultra fabulous pants and two ultra great sandals, and I'm wearing one of them with my brand new Naf Naf blouse, my hair is perfect, my life is even more perfect, I love my boyfriend, my penpals are all fabulous, I'm replying one of them and words pour out of me like you've no idea, the car business, though somewhat slow, is going awesome, the NFL is around the corner, I had a premium Happy Meal yesterday for the Children's Day, and so, in a nutshell, this was a great week, with an even greater Friday, as part all of a Great Life.

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Me, Me, Me. It's good to be me

Economist, student, reader, witch, monster... it depends of the eye of the beholder :-) I love everything that has to do with economics, politics, and planners, studying, organization and sometimes even a good ranting about something.